James F Posted September 29, 2020 Share Posted September 29, 2020 I just got a J45 studio in that has a dark finish on the neck like a regular J45 and has the fret board of a Hummingbird with the parallelograms inlay. Also, how much of the truss road should come through the nut? Mine seems to be down inside of the nut a couple turns at least. Forgive the stupid questions. It’s my first Gibson. Pics attached: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
QuestionMark Posted September 29, 2020 Share Posted September 29, 2020 (edited) The truss rod nut on all of my Gibsons is inside the neck, not sticking above, under the truss rod plate. Regarding the parallelogram inlays rather than dots on the neck, these things happen when instruments are handmade. I have a 1955-6 New York Epiphone FT79 that has dot inlays on the neck rather than parallelograms like every other NY Epiphone FT79 I’ve seen. Also, my 1994 Gibson Gospel Reissue has light brown mahogany wood on its back, sides, and neck where nearly every other Gospel Reissue I’ve seen has dark mahogany. I would add that likely others can add more discrepancies or explanations other than these things happen when instruments are handmade. QM aka “Jazzman” Jeff Edited September 29, 2020 by QuestionMark 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CAMELEYE Posted September 29, 2020 Share Posted September 29, 2020 I think that's a nice look. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobouz Posted September 30, 2020 Share Posted September 30, 2020 You got lucky on that one! The inlays look great on there - definitely a mistake in your favor. Congrats & Enjoy! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BluesKing777 Posted September 30, 2020 Share Posted September 30, 2020 It could mean there is a poor little Bird running around with the...wrong neck? 😁 A "Dotneck Bird"? BluesKing777. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gearbasher Posted September 30, 2020 Share Posted September 30, 2020 I have a J-45 Flamed Maple LTD with a rosewood bridge and fingerboard. All the others I've seen have ebony. You would think a limited run would be consistent. I like my "oddball". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zombywoof Posted September 30, 2020 Share Posted September 30, 2020 As QuestionMark notes though in the case of the dot neck Epi FT-79s the deviation from normal specs is common enough that the "experts" cite it as a feature of guitars made in 1955 with the only mystery being the serial number on at least mine dates the guitar to 1956. I am guessing the Pros from Dover either got the serialization wrong or Epi was simply running through pre-printed labels and there were in fact no FT-79s produced in 1956. Now I did own a 1963 B45-12 that in fact was built with a repurposed HB body. It oddly even had a classical guitar style square white label inside which made no sense but I assume was placed to cover the Hummingbird stamp. But Bozeman is not Kalamazoo. In the case of the OPs guitar it is apparently not one of a larger run. The only thing I can come up with it that it was just a screw up. But if so you would think that this would have been a big enough error to have been caught down the line. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slimt Posted September 30, 2020 Share Posted September 30, 2020 Thats a nice feature to have on a J45. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zombywoof Posted September 30, 2020 Share Posted September 30, 2020 Maybe this is the first attempt to toss a J45 and an SJ into a blender. Walla - an SJ Studio. The mind wobbles. But if you can have a natural top J45 anything is possible. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lars68 Posted September 30, 2020 Share Posted September 30, 2020 (edited) It appears Gibson is currently having trouble putting the correct necks on their guitars. I remember JC's recent thread about the historic SJ that got dot inlays. I won't repeat my comments from that thread, except add that I think it hurts Gibson, and their customers, every time the product deviates from advertised specs. Lars Edit: I'm glad to read in the post below that this guitar was actually not a manufacturing mistake. Edited September 30, 2020 by Lars68 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Waytall Posted September 30, 2020 Share Posted September 30, 2020 After speaking with Music Villa this morning , this Gibson Studio apparently is not a mistake but was ordered this way. Mistake or not it looks awesome. They should do some in the burst finish "Southern Studio" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dhanners623 Posted September 30, 2020 Share Posted September 30, 2020 It's always cool to have a unique guitar. There are enough cookie-cutter axes out there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gearbasher Posted September 30, 2020 Share Posted September 30, 2020 https://musicvilla.com/collections/gibson-acoustics/products/gibson-j-45-studio-walnut-0034 *This particular guitar has upgraded Parallelogram fingerboard inlays! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zombywoof Posted October 1, 2020 Share Posted October 1, 2020 Aha! I do not get the "flatter" fingerboard through. The 16" radius this model has is standard on J45s. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobouz Posted October 1, 2020 Share Posted October 1, 2020 5 hours ago, zombywoof said: I do not get the "flatter" fingerboard through. The 16" radius this model has is standard on J45s. Certainly not an expert on this from model to model, but I believe a 12” radius has been standard fare for most Gibson acoustics until recently - including roundshoulder dread bodies. As in this Music Villa listing, Gibson has been highlighting the change. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Holiday Hoser Posted October 1, 2020 Share Posted October 1, 2020 (edited) How about a '64 bird with a L5 fretboard and inlays? Wacky but cool so anything is possible! Edited October 1, 2020 by Holiday Hoser Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Waytall Posted October 1, 2020 Share Posted October 1, 2020 That Bird looks great! I ended up calling Music Villa back yesterday and purchased the J-45 with parallelogram inlay. I currently play an Epiphone AJ-45me and this seemed like a great upgrade. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zombywoof Posted October 1, 2020 Share Posted October 1, 2020 5 hours ago, bobouz said: Certainly not an expert on this from model to model, but I believe a 12” radius has been standard fare for most Gibson acoustics until recently - including roundshoulder dread bodies. As in this Music Villa listing, Gibson has been highlighting the change. I meant to say is I believe the 16" radius is now common on the J45 Standard. It is also found on that Slash J45. Me Bad. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J-1854Me Posted October 1, 2020 Share Posted October 1, 2020 On 9/29/2020 at 12:53 PM, QuestionMark said: The truss rod nut on all of my Gibsons is inside the neck, not sticking above, under the truss rod plate. Regarding the parallelogram inlays rather than dots on the neck, these things happen when instruments are handmade. I have a 1955-6 New York Epiphone FT79 that has dot inlays on the neck rather than parallelograms like every other NY Epiphone FT79 I’ve seen. Also, my 1994 Gibson Gospel Reissue has light brown mahogany wood on its back, sides, and neck where nearly every other Gospel Reissue I’ve seen has dark mahogany. I would add that likely others can add more discrepancies or explanations other than these things happen when instruments are handmade. QM aka “Jazzman” Jeff Just for reference' sake, Jeff, many of the mid-'90s Gospels that I have seen (and I did own a '94 for a while), were not dark-stained at all: they had the (very pleasing!) virtually natural finish mahogany neck, back and sides. So, that, as an anecdotal thing..... 🙂 Fred Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J-1854Me Posted October 1, 2020 Share Posted October 1, 2020 10 hours ago, bobouz said: Certainly not an expert on this from model to model, but I believe a 12” radius has been standard fare for most Gibson acoustics until recently - including roundshoulder dread bodies. As in this Music Villa listing, Gibson has been highlighting the change. Yeah, I've been wondering about this change too, moving from a 12" to a "more comfortable" 16" radius. The rounder geometry of the fingerboard was ALWAYS one of the things I loved about Gibsons; to me they felt so comfortable, like an old pair of jeans. Much as I love Larrivee guitars, for example, one of the things I never could really get was the flat fingerboard. Jean came from a classical player's background and so tended to go for the flatter f-board design element, while Gibson had the tighter 12-ish inch radius. Fred Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
QuestionMark Posted October 1, 2020 Share Posted October 1, 2020 13 minutes ago, J-1854Me said: Just for reference' sake, Jeff, many of the mid-'90s Gospels that I have seen (and I did own a '94 for a while), were not dark-stained at all: they had the (very pleasing!) virtually natural finish mahogany neck, back and sides. So, that, as an anecdotal thing..... 🙂 Fred Thanks for the post and info! Good to learn! QM aka “ Jazzman” Jeff Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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